WhereToBegin
New member
Hello! This is my first time on a leopard gecko forum, or a forum at all actually! Yeah, so I'm sorry if I mess anything up! Also prepare yourself for a block of text sorry!
My name's Portia(pronounced; Por-sha) and I'm 17. I own one leopard gecko, her name is Banunu, and hopefully I'll be getting two more some time soon! I've been researching them obsessively for the past year and a half and have even been considering breeding them(I know about all of the responsibility and such that comes with that task ;P as I said researching OBSESSIVELY haha there's always more to learn though). I also have a meal worm colony starting up!
Now, I'm not going to lie here. And I kind of want to hear other peoples opinions.. I don't really care if I get yelled at, in fact I feel like I deserve it... A lot. Mostly because I jumped into this expecting it to be easier than it is/was and because of that mistreated my gecko...
Banunu is really small. She's a year old, normal morph(or so I've heard?? I've always questioned it a little). She's only 6 inches. When I got her, she was a mess, underweight and smaller than all of her siblings. I had picked her because she was the prettiest, I didn't care about health or anything else really. She had this little face on the back of her head that looked like a pumpkin face with fangs and little ruffles under her neck! I was told she most likely wouldn't live the first 5 weeks-5 months of owning her and that when she died I could bring in her dead body back to petco and get another gecko in exchange. The reason he gave was that they had a 'bad batch' in and that she was showing signs of being sick.
Me being a stubborn kid told the man that I really wanted her, and that I wasn't going to let her die and that I would heal her.
What the man didn't tell me, is that the clutch of geckos wasn't sick(well they were I'll explain that later), but that they weren't healthy. I'm assuming this, but I think that all of those poor little geckos had neurological problems or something similar, so they had a hard time feeding. I'm assuming that because my gecko Banunu does.
If he had told me, I think she would be much healthier today...
I didn't notice it until she was scary close to death.(How did you not notice???? D:<) Well yeah, I ask myself this all of the time. But at the time, I thought she was sick... Stupid reason right? I really wasn't educated at all..
I started out just feeding the geckos(we had two, one was mine one was my sisters) gut loaded crickets. I would dump like 8 crickets in and let the gecko's catch them. I would leave after watching my sisters catch a few and come back and they appeared to be gone. I'm assuming at this point that they hid and Pelican(My sisters gecko) would eat them when she found them so I didn't find any aside from a few dead ones in the water after feeding. Because I know she wasn't eating
I honestly thought Banunu was eating, until one day around the third month of having her, I stuck around long enough to see her do this weird thing that my sisters never did. She dove for the cricket and bit the paper towels, missed by an inch and turned a half circle before giving up! I laughed, and figured it was just a goof, but as I watched more it began to freak me out more, but I figured it was just a weird thing, and I didn't have access to the internet so I went to the petco to ask if she was blind. Which was my very uneducated guess.
They said she was probably just stuffy or having a hard time smelling and that I should soak her in, a little warmer than lukewarm, water for 15 minutes for a few days and see if she got any better.
I did it and the whole act didn't stop. At this point I was trying to learn how to hand feed her and had figured out that pressing the food against her cheek made her open up and take it, however catching the crickets was difficult for me too and she still didn't get that many.
We went back, explained the situation, and someone said that she was probably having neurological problems that wouldn't go away.
I decided to ask if meal worms would suffice for crickets, they were easier to catch for both of us and was told that with calcium dusted on them, they would do fine. So I took them home and did that.
They didn't tell me that they were low fat worms and that it would take more than that. She didn't loose weight luckily, she just didn't gain like she needed to. ):
So that's what I actually fed her up until a month ago, mostly because I also saw a lot of posts saying that everything else was super risky and not worth it, and didn't want to try it. But finally someone flipped out and knocked some sense into me and I purchased wax worms and give her four every other day and will give her two in between if she'll take them. I've had no problems so far, and to be honest am furious with myself for listening to the posts about that... Aside from that she's had no problems aside from a few missing toes from bad sheds... In fact she's slowly gaining weight.
As for Pelican, I'm still not sure what happened to her, my sister stopped caring so I had to take care of both of them and pelican got sick with something that I'm unsure of, and lost weight like crazy even though I was hand feeding her too, and eventually died... I'm guessing it was because the worms I gave her weren't enough.
So that's my story.
I made a mistake with my geckos, it won't be forgotten, and I feel horrible for them up to this day.
I wanted to share this, because everyone keeps saying it's not my fault, and I know it is. Which is part of why I want to be here, because I want help if I encounter anymore sneak attack problems... And I want people who'll understand how bad I should feel because I'm tired of people telling me it's okay, because it's not.
I know I'm responsible for every thing that happened. And I want everyone to know that I understand and feel completely guilty for what has happened to my geckos.
I learned from this experience however. A lot. coughcoughlike pet stores are a bad ideacoughcough. And it's been a full year before I've finally come to the decision of possibly purchasing another gecko, and that'll happen next year most likely. I know I have a lot more to learn still, which is partially why I'm here. I need to get what I can... So I guess I can start off with some questions?...
But first, I guess I'll clarify something, Banunu isn't healthy, and I don't know if she'll ever be big enough to breed. People ask me a lot if I'll breed her when I talk about plans for that stuff, but even if she does get up to that size some how, I will never breed her. So I thought I should also clarify that.. So for quesitons;
So, I guess I should ask if anyone else has some extra advice? Do you know if she'll grow anymore or if she'll probably stay in the 6 inch range now that she's a year? I honestly would just be happy if she made it another inch at least since I've heard of healthy adults reaching that size and stopping..
Also she has a ruffle under her neck still.. what's that about because I've never seen another leo with something like that? She used to have another one on the other side too. I attached a picture of it for you guys to see.↓
My name's Portia(pronounced; Por-sha) and I'm 17. I own one leopard gecko, her name is Banunu, and hopefully I'll be getting two more some time soon! I've been researching them obsessively for the past year and a half and have even been considering breeding them(I know about all of the responsibility and such that comes with that task ;P as I said researching OBSESSIVELY haha there's always more to learn though). I also have a meal worm colony starting up!
Now, I'm not going to lie here. And I kind of want to hear other peoples opinions.. I don't really care if I get yelled at, in fact I feel like I deserve it... A lot. Mostly because I jumped into this expecting it to be easier than it is/was and because of that mistreated my gecko...
Banunu is really small. She's a year old, normal morph(or so I've heard?? I've always questioned it a little). She's only 6 inches. When I got her, she was a mess, underweight and smaller than all of her siblings. I had picked her because she was the prettiest, I didn't care about health or anything else really. She had this little face on the back of her head that looked like a pumpkin face with fangs and little ruffles under her neck! I was told she most likely wouldn't live the first 5 weeks-5 months of owning her and that when she died I could bring in her dead body back to petco and get another gecko in exchange. The reason he gave was that they had a 'bad batch' in and that she was showing signs of being sick.
Me being a stubborn kid told the man that I really wanted her, and that I wasn't going to let her die and that I would heal her.
What the man didn't tell me, is that the clutch of geckos wasn't sick(well they were I'll explain that later), but that they weren't healthy. I'm assuming this, but I think that all of those poor little geckos had neurological problems or something similar, so they had a hard time feeding. I'm assuming that because my gecko Banunu does.
If he had told me, I think she would be much healthier today...
I didn't notice it until she was scary close to death.(How did you not notice???? D:<) Well yeah, I ask myself this all of the time. But at the time, I thought she was sick... Stupid reason right? I really wasn't educated at all..
I started out just feeding the geckos(we had two, one was mine one was my sisters) gut loaded crickets. I would dump like 8 crickets in and let the gecko's catch them. I would leave after watching my sisters catch a few and come back and they appeared to be gone. I'm assuming at this point that they hid and Pelican(My sisters gecko) would eat them when she found them so I didn't find any aside from a few dead ones in the water after feeding. Because I know she wasn't eating
I honestly thought Banunu was eating, until one day around the third month of having her, I stuck around long enough to see her do this weird thing that my sisters never did. She dove for the cricket and bit the paper towels, missed by an inch and turned a half circle before giving up! I laughed, and figured it was just a goof, but as I watched more it began to freak me out more, but I figured it was just a weird thing, and I didn't have access to the internet so I went to the petco to ask if she was blind. Which was my very uneducated guess.
They said she was probably just stuffy or having a hard time smelling and that I should soak her in, a little warmer than lukewarm, water for 15 minutes for a few days and see if she got any better.
I did it and the whole act didn't stop. At this point I was trying to learn how to hand feed her and had figured out that pressing the food against her cheek made her open up and take it, however catching the crickets was difficult for me too and she still didn't get that many.
We went back, explained the situation, and someone said that she was probably having neurological problems that wouldn't go away.
I decided to ask if meal worms would suffice for crickets, they were easier to catch for both of us and was told that with calcium dusted on them, they would do fine. So I took them home and did that.
They didn't tell me that they were low fat worms and that it would take more than that. She didn't loose weight luckily, she just didn't gain like she needed to. ):
So that's what I actually fed her up until a month ago, mostly because I also saw a lot of posts saying that everything else was super risky and not worth it, and didn't want to try it. But finally someone flipped out and knocked some sense into me and I purchased wax worms and give her four every other day and will give her two in between if she'll take them. I've had no problems so far, and to be honest am furious with myself for listening to the posts about that... Aside from that she's had no problems aside from a few missing toes from bad sheds... In fact she's slowly gaining weight.
As for Pelican, I'm still not sure what happened to her, my sister stopped caring so I had to take care of both of them and pelican got sick with something that I'm unsure of, and lost weight like crazy even though I was hand feeding her too, and eventually died... I'm guessing it was because the worms I gave her weren't enough.
So that's my story.
I made a mistake with my geckos, it won't be forgotten, and I feel horrible for them up to this day.
I wanted to share this, because everyone keeps saying it's not my fault, and I know it is. Which is part of why I want to be here, because I want help if I encounter anymore sneak attack problems... And I want people who'll understand how bad I should feel because I'm tired of people telling me it's okay, because it's not.
I know I'm responsible for every thing that happened. And I want everyone to know that I understand and feel completely guilty for what has happened to my geckos.
I learned from this experience however. A lot. coughcoughlike pet stores are a bad ideacoughcough. And it's been a full year before I've finally come to the decision of possibly purchasing another gecko, and that'll happen next year most likely. I know I have a lot more to learn still, which is partially why I'm here. I need to get what I can... So I guess I can start off with some questions?...
But first, I guess I'll clarify something, Banunu isn't healthy, and I don't know if she'll ever be big enough to breed. People ask me a lot if I'll breed her when I talk about plans for that stuff, but even if she does get up to that size some how, I will never breed her. So I thought I should also clarify that.. So for quesitons;
So, I guess I should ask if anyone else has some extra advice? Do you know if she'll grow anymore or if she'll probably stay in the 6 inch range now that she's a year? I honestly would just be happy if she made it another inch at least since I've heard of healthy adults reaching that size and stopping..
Also she has a ruffle under her neck still.. what's that about because I've never seen another leo with something like that? She used to have another one on the other side too. I attached a picture of it for you guys to see.↓
